McCain Concerned . . .

about troop strength in Iraq, and was visibily upset this morning in an appearance on NBC's "Face the Nation".

Senator McCain went on to say that the $71 billion dollar Air Force's F/A-22 Fighter program may have to be scrapped, as well as the Boeing 767 mid-air refueling tanker program in order to pay for the resources that have been diverted to Iraq:

"The pattern we have seen since earlier this month shows there is a terror offensive taking place," said Nash, who is now affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not going to stop unless we put a stop to it."

But there may be precious few combat troops to send. Of the Army's 33 combat brigades, 20 are already stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea or Kosovo. "And to get that 20, they raped the other 13," said retired Brig. Gen. David Grange. Units deploying overseas that were short on platoon sergeants or tank commanders simply borrowed from units remaining in the United States, leaving them undermanned, he said.

"We find ourselves today waging two simultaneous wars, the guerrilla war in Iraq and another smaller guerrilla war in Afghanistan," said retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, who teaches international relations at Boston University. "The active forces are too small to wage both of them without making it impossible to take on contingencies such as Korea."

In his farewell address in June, retiring Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki warned against pursuing "a 12-division strategy with a 10-division Army." Most experts agreed, saying the Army needs at least two more combat divisions to provide adequate time for soldiers to rotate home for rest, re-training or re-equipping, and to have on hand a reserve force large enough to handle contingencies.

Creating two new divisions would not happen quickly. "It would cost about $20 billion and take about two years to build up two new divisions," Krepinovich said. "I think we're going to hit a crisis point well before two years."

In an emergency, the Army National Guard, which has the equivalent of 14 divisions, could be called up. But as of July 21, 74,551 National Guard soldiers had been mobilized and sent overseas, along with 61,590 Army reservists.

"One of every six reserve soldiers is on active duty now," said John Hillen, a decorated veteran of the first Gulf War who served on the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on National Security Structure for the 21st Century. "It's pretty hard to see how [the Army] can strain this stream even more."

And yet we have people like Hapaboi and Specul8or that see no problem with our military's ability to be stretched as far as it is, whether it be stretched on a fiscal, equipment, readiness-deployment, effectiveness, or morale basis.